Open Source

Free Video Chat App Template

By Adrian Bridgwater, November 21, 2013

PubNub App Template for WebRTC is free and open source with Google Authentication

PubNub somewhat perplexingly describes itself as the "only global real-time network" there is. What the company appears to mean is that it provides the cloud infrastructure and key building blocks for real-time apps that scale globally to any device.

Essentially then, the PubNub Real-Time Network takes care of the cloud infrastructure, connections, and key building blocks for real-time interactivity.

The firm has this month released an open source template to allow developers to add Skype-like video chat into their apps. The free template provides a fully functional video chat platform using WebRTC, PubNub, and Google authentication for a global, reliable collaboration solution.

"When Skype launched its VoIP platform a decade ago, it sent ripples through the telecommunications industry. While the WebRTC protocol has created huge excitement as a way to deliver video chat ubiquitously, there's still a gap between the protocol itself and the ability to deploy a working, globally scaled, collaboration application using this technology," said Stephen Blum, CTO and cofounder of PubNub. "Now, by combining PubNub's Real-Time Network and WebRTC, anyone can deliver a true, Skype-like video chat app in a matter of days."

The firm talks about its new release in grand terms and says that now, for the first time, all the core elements needed to build and deploy a fully featured WebRTC video chat product are available as a documented, open source template.

This new template uses the browser's built-in WebRTC protocol for peer-to-peer audio and video, and adds the additional components needed for a fully deployable video chat application: All the source code, and a website with a working app using the template, is available here.

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